Keighley: Where English table tennis rebuilds from the second floor of a business centre

I stood for a long time in front of an office building in the town of Keighley before I believed this was the meeting point for table tennis. Outside, there was no big sign, no stylised white ball, no visual clue that a table tennis centre was on the second floor. But in the world of community table tennis, Keighley has quietly become a name worth mentioning. Not because of a star player, not because of a scoring record, but because this place is trying to do something many grassroots clubs ignore: build a coaching workforce. Emotion is noisy data – but at some point, noise becomes signal. Once I walked through the second-floor door, the first impression was clear. Around eight tables were arranged in an orderly line. Each table had its own surround and netting. There was a kitchen, refreshment area, and a separate classroom and boardroom space. I have visited many table tennis venues, from elite academies to modest social clubs, and I could sense that Keighley was not trying to look grand. It was trying to do things properly. Let me be clear: this is not a story about the high-performance peak of English table tennis. It is a story about the base of the pyramid. The centre has a long history of recreational play, league competition, junior development, coaching camps and coach education. But what makes the current phase interesting is the focus on people. Andy Bray runs and supports the centre. He is described by Steve Brunskill, a Coach Developer from Table Tennis England, as passionate and determined to keep moving the club forward. Bray prioritises building a new group of coaches. That is one of the clearest leadership signals a grassroots club can give. Steve Brunskill’s visit was not a simple facility inspection. He helped deliver part of a Level 1 Coaching Assistant qualification at the centre. Ten learners from varied playing and coaching backgrounds attended. Ten is not a big number in a performance report, but ten new potential coaches in a setting that badly needs volunteer coaches is an important sign. The physical environment matters more than people may think. When tables are close together without barriers, cross-table balls create interruptions. Each chase for a stray ball eats into actual training time. At Keighley, the decision to enclose each table reduces those interruptions and helps separate training groups. That creates a more professional environment for coaching courses and continuing professional development, or CPD. One detail stood out to me most: a planned CPD session dedicated to serving. Serving is the one skill in table tennis where the performer has complete control before the ball touches the table. At grassroots level, a good serve can change the shape of a whole match. Choosing serving as a CPD topic implies that the system identifies serve and receive quality as an important development point for club coaches. There is no need to invent a dramatic statistic. The choice itself is the insight. There is also a valuable lesson for Vietnam. We often spend money on infrastructure first, then discover that we lack people who can teach. Infrastructure does not create coaches. It creates pressure to find coaches. Keighley is doing the reverse: it is using existing facilities to attract coach education, then using freshly trained coaches to generate more community activity. That is a model worth studying. Now for the counter-intuitive angle. The risk I see is key-person dependence. Andy Bray works abroad for long periods. His enthusiasm is driving the project, but local continuity will be difficult if he is not physically present. The ten learners must eventually become a local core group, not a network dependent on international phone calls. It is far too early to call this a fully developed coaching hub. The article is, after all, a promotional piece about a facility with potential. The gap between potential and outcome has not yet been closed. The soon-to-be-introduced coaching membership for 2026/27 and Coach Plus tier may help Table Tennis England keep coaches engaged after their initial qualification. But membership structures are only as strong as the follow-up support behind them. Without sustained mentoring, many newly qualified coaches simply disappear. That is the real challenge. As I often say, every contract is a card game with the dealer holding the final ace. But in a community club, the most important contract is not with a star athlete. It is the quiet commitment of one volunteer coach who promises to turn up next week, and the week after. In 2026/27, I want to return to this story. I will not look at the number of tables. I will look at ten names from a single Level 1 course. Anyone can build a room full of table tennis tables. The harder work is building a room full of people who understand why they are standing there.